Bargaining underway with several prominent BC hotels

Vancouver—Several hotels in downtown Vancouver and Victoria are in bargaining with Unifor this summer as hospitality workers seek to share in the economic success of the hotel industry.

“Unifor defends workers’ rights in the hospitality sector,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “We look forward to bargaining fair wages and healthy working conditions in Vancouver and Victoria hotels.”

Workers at the Hotel Vancouver, the Coast Coal Harbour, the Residence Inn, and the Hotel Grand Pacific are looking to make gains during a time of strong sales and profits. They will join Unifor members at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, who made substantial gains in 2016 bargaining. Across North America, unionized hotel workers enjoy a substantial financial benefit over the non-unionized sector.

Unifor will deal with core workplace issues such as reducing housekeeping workloads and increasing gratuities, but the union is also eager to enshrine social justice language in the new contracts, including a program dealing with domestic abuse and funding a women’s advocate.

“We have ambitious goals in this round of bargaining to ensure that our members share in the gains made by their hotels,” said Mario Santos, Unifor National Representative. “A unionized workplace is a safe workplace where workers are treated with respect and paid fairly for their labour.”